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Michael Massing

Michael Massing, a former executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, is the author of Fatal Discord: Erasmus, Luther, and the Fight for the Western Mind. (February 2018)

The News Crisis: What Google Can Do

“How Google Can Help Newspapers,” ran the benign-sounding headline atop an Op-Ed column by Google CEO Eric Schmidt in the December 1 Wall Street Journal. In it, Schmidt sought to rebut claims that, as Les Hinton, the CEO of Dow Jones, has put it, Google is a “digital vampire” that is “sucking the blood” out of the news business. Quite to the contrary, Schmidt argued, Google wants to turn that business around. He wasn’t very convincing. In fact, his article shows how inept Google has been in responding to its critics. I’d like to suggest a better way.

December 10, 2009

A Public Bailout for News?

It was with much curiosity that I opened The Reconstruction of American Journalism, the latest entrant in the great race to save the news in America. Commissioned by Nicholas Lemann, the dean of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, the report was written by Leonard Downie Jr., the highly respected former executive editor of The Washington Post, and Michael Schudson, a leading historian of American journalism who is also at the Columbia J-School. The two spent months crisscrossing the country and interviewing scores of editors, reporters, bloggers, philanthropists, entrepreneurs, and citizens. In the end, the 21,000 words they produced can be boiled down to this: Columbia, the leading journalism school in the country, has placed its imprimatur on the idea of government funding of the news. What sort of impact might that have?

November 9, 2009

Talking Points Memo, the blog started in 2000 by Josh Marshall, July 14, 2009

The News About the Internet

Bloggers on the Bus: How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press

by Eric Boehlert

And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture

by Bill Wasik

Rob Browne at Daily Kos: rbguy.dailykos.com

Juan Cole, Informed Comment: juancole.com

Brad DeLong, Grasping Reality with Both Hands: delong.typepad.com/sdj

Glenn Greenwald: salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

Ryan Grim at The Huffington Post: huffingtonpost.com/the-news/reporting/ryan-grim

Joanne Jacobs: joannejacobs.com

Ron Kampeas, CapitalJ: blogs.jta.org/politics/

Mickey Kaus, kausfiles: www.slate.com/kausfiles/

Mark Kleiman, The Reality-Based Community: samefacts.com

Ezra Klein at The Washington Post: voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein

Kevin Pho, KevinMD: kevinmd.com

Yves Smith: nakedcapitalism.com

Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish: andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com

Tanta at CalculatedRISK: calculatedriskblog.com

Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss: philipweiss.org/mondoweiss

Marcy Wheeler, emptywheel at FireDogLake: emptywheel.firedoglake.com

Matthew Yglesias: yglesias.thinkprogress.org

ProPublica: propublica.org

Talking Points Memo: talkingpointsmemo.com

"Why Are Bankers Still Being Treated As Beltway Royalty?"

by Arianna Huffington

"The State of the News Media, 2009: An Annual Report on American Journalism"

by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism

"Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable"

by Clay Shirky

Ross Douthat at The New York Times: nytimes.com

See all reviewed works
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August 13, 2009 issue

General David Petraeus, right, and General Raymond Odierno testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Washington, D.C., May 22, 2008. In September 2008, General Odierno succeeded General Petraeus as the top American commander in Iraq, and General Petraeus became head of Central Command.

Is It a Great Victory?

The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006–2008

by Thomas E. Ricks

April 30, 2009 issue

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